Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings took a corner and fans wanted more than was possible on Day 2 of the draft

Episode Date: April 29, 2023

Matthew Coller takes fan questions after Round 2-3 of the NFL Draft and is surprised to find out how many Vikings fans did not like their approach Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to day two of the NFL Draft in which the Minnesota Vikings mostly sat around and did absolutely nothing. The Vikings came in with the 87th pick. They traded back to the 107th pick to take Makai Blackman, a cornerback out of USC, who had very good PFF grades, is 24 years old, undersized, and the Vikings apparently liked him a lot. Kwezi Adafomensa said that they considered taking him at number 87, but decided that they would have a chance to move down and still take him. And so what I have done is gathered a bunch of reaction from Vikings fans from Twitter, and we're going to go through questions and comments based on the Vikings' one and only pick on night two. Now it's probably a good time to remind you that the Vikings did not pick in the second round because they traded that pick

for none other than TJ Hawkinson. Now, interestingly, Hendon Hooker ends up going to the Detroit Lions. That was a highlight of tonight. Will Levis ends up with the Tennessee Titans going right after the start of the second round. Unfortunately for Will Levis, he left and went home, so he didn't have to wait around all day, but then was picked pretty quickly once the day started. So both of those quarterbacks who were the ones that dropped did not have to wait too long, unlike last year when Malik Willis and Desmond Ritter and Sam Howell had to wait for some of them into day three or day two, deep into day two. But in this case, the quarterbacks go in the second round.

So maybe the Detroit Lions think that they have a future quarterback there in Hendon Hooker. Though, interestingly, he's not that much younger. And I'm not joking around. He is not that much younger than Jared Goff who has been around forever so that just kind of tells you how strange that situation is with Hendon Hooker and his age and how unique that is and Will Levis going to the Titans now nobody knows if Will Levis will overcome his draft status and be the Titans future quarterback what we do know is that several of the top quarterbacks,

and he gets to be included in that, that were projected to go pretty high, they end up in the AFC. So, you know, the Vikings being in the NFC avoid that. Now, it's an interesting discussion to say that Will Levis was not taken technically in the first round, so he's not a first-round prospect, but he didn't drop that much farther than the Vikings. So can we question it or not? I mean, I think that on night one, most people were very much okay with the Vikings not taking the risk on Will Levis. There was reportedly some injury issues with his toe that were problematic. Also, the accuracy problems

didn't have great numbers at Kentucky. The entire league of teams that needed quarterbacks seemed to not want to go all in on drafting Will Levis. So I think it's hard to question the Vikings not doing it if he was not truly a first round prospect. But at the same time, just for argument's sake, it wasn't exactly like a Malik Willis situation where he dropped completely out of the first and second round that he was considered somewhat still of a top prospect. So I guess that will be something to track as we go along. Like, did the Vikings make a mistake in passing on potentially a future quarterback? I would still tend to lean very much that they did not make a mistake because even if Will Levis becomes a good quarterback ultimately in the NFL and look,

they've got a system that I think is favorable in Tennessee to quarterbacks that have some issues and Ryan Tannehill has thrived there, but the run the ball first play action, try to protect the quarterback as much as you can. But if the leadership of the Vikings did not buy fully into Will Levis as their future franchise quarterback, certainly you could say, hey, take shots, throw darts and so forth. But I think for a prospect that is not as highly considered, that is not considered a first round pick to have taken that shot there. If the rest of the league looked at him and did not consider him a top prospect, maybe would have been the reach that everyone's always afraid of. And also, do you want your former quarterback

head coach to be picking someone that he doesn't believe in just because maybe it's a good idea to take a swing on a quarterback that has big muscles and throws the ball hard and drinks mayo with his coffee. I mean, I don't think it's a good idea if the entire organization or at least Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell are on the same page, but at least notable that Levis was taken kind of in the same ballpark as someone like Jalen Hurts or someone like Derek Carr if we're looking for quarterbacks that hit in the early part of the second round so that will be one that we will track going forward how that plays out so the Vikings the first question that I asked Kweisi Adafo-Mensa was hey did you guys consider trading up in this draft and he talked about how the way that the

board fell they would have been looking for some high value type of players or some players that maybe they did not expect to fall that got into say the second round so if you had a first round grade on someone they drop into the mid second round that's where you start having that conversation could we trade up and get them but he said the way the board fell, that they really didn't have a player that they would have been willing to stack together some draft capital or reach into next year to try to trade up. So they wait, they trade back, they get a little extra draft capital. Not a lot. Of course, you're not going to get a ton when you're moving back in the third round, but they got the player that they wanted in the third round in cornerback Makai Blackman.

And so off we go to your Vikings related questions. And one thing that I noticed that I think that throughout this night, Vikings fans got a little angsty about just not having draft picks because I saw a lot of, and you'll, you'll see this in the questions from Vikings fans when I threw it out there and I said, Hey, give me your reactions, give me your questions. And there's, I think some maybe frustration in this move and we'll go through exactly what the criticisms are of this draft pick for me personally. I can't really come up with many and we'll, we'll get into what the specific are of this draft pick for me personally, I can't really come up with many and, and we'll,

we'll get into what the specific ones are, but this is a premium position, the cornerback spot. And they talked about McKay Blackman is a potential nickel corner, which I think is one of the most underrated positions in the NFL that I think the nickel corner has a lot of value in the NFL today. So if they do end up getting someone who can be a nickel corner in the third round, that's good for them. Even if he turns out to be a fringe starter, a rotational player, your expectations when you just don't

have a lot of draft picks, because again, you spent your second rounder on a star tight end, then you have to kind of set the bar at a certain spot. Can he be a starter? Maybe that's what you're aiming for. Can he be a starting nickel and allow Byron Murphy to play on the outside? Again, that's something that they talked about trying to project his skillset and something that they were looking for. And on some draft boards, the consensus board on the PFF board, they had some other corners higher. But I think when we get to this point in the middle rounds, middle late rounds, that is much different of a conversation than we're talking about at the high rounds. Because the Vikings hired Brian Flores, coach defensive backs, coach linebackers, defensive coordinator, former scout, to be involved in these decisions. So I think similarly to that quarterback discussion,

what you want here is the player that Brian Flores wants in his defense and feels is the best fit, not just necessarily what a consensus draft board says. Again, I mean, I believe in the consensus draft board, especially early early on if you take someone who is supposed to be consensus third or fourth round pick and you take them in the first round then we're going to have some questions but if you're taking a guy in the third round that was projected by some in the fourth instead of somebody who is projected in the second by you know the mock draft people I have a really tough time saying, how dare you or what were you thinking?

Because I think they have specific things in mind. They also met with Makai Blackman. They felt like he was a very good pick for them. He talked about on his conference call after he was drafted, just about coming here to the Vikings, having them take him through defenses, see if he could kind of break down his own defense, see if he could recall defenses that they taught him very kind of standard stuff, but they must have seen things that they like. There's always going to be questions about every single draft pick in the third round. And for Makai Blackman,

he's undersized at about 175 pounds and he is on the older side at 24 years old and how those things factor into his success. We don't know, but when you're picking in the back end of the third round already, you move down, you're getting a prospect that is in the fringe of the top 100. And there's always going to be some questions about it. This is why we've talked about in the past about trying to stack up draft capital, right? Is because of this exact type of scenario that you're never getting in the backend or middle third round players that you could say, oh yeah, this guy's going to step right in. He's going to be the next superstar. That's usually

reserved for the top of the first round, but they picked the right position. They picked a guy that has positional versatility and they pick someone that they think or at least their defensive coordinator who has a really good track record thinks that can fit into the defense. It creates quite a bit of competition in that cornerback room, which I think is really important. I think you throw numbers. They're painting by numbers. They signed Jawan Williams. They bring in Makai Blackton. They bring in Byron Murphy. And then they have the two guys from last year, Andrew Booth Jr. and Caleb Evans. You've got competition in the cornerback room. You're never going to find them unless you have that. And if you wanted a better cornerback prospect, well, then you have to sacrifice

Jordan Addison because that's how the draft works. So in order to get someone better as a prospect, they would have had to trade up. And I guess when we'll get into this even more in a minute, but when I look at why didn't they take this player? Why didn't they take that player? I guess my answer is, I don't know. I don't know why they didn't take one player over the other that the outside world thought was better, but I don't know how much I trust the outside world to decide who is a good fit for the Vikings more than I would buy into Brian Flores having a good idea in that. And no, I think that that's not to dispel what it means to have these draft rankings and things like that. There have been some proof and connection to the success rates, but that's not a perfect science either.

So the Vikings have a wide receiver, a corner. One of the big criticisms of them last year was that they didn't go premium positions as much as maybe they should have. Well, they've done that with their two picks. So let's get into your questions about night two and the Vikings draft so far. And we'll start off with Ankel's Chiro on Twitter. What's your guess as to what happens with Cook and Zedaria Smith now that they have not been traded? I just don't think there are many options, right? It could be different for both. The fact that they were not traded here tonight when they were talked about as potential trade candidates does make it look more like they could be released. Now, I think if we're looking at the

two players, the odds of Delvin Cook being released are higher than Zedaria Smith, or maybe they could always try to trade Delvin Cook after the draft and look for some 2024 draft capital. I think that that does get quite a bit harder to trade players after the draft, unless you're talking about someone like Daniel Hunter, who's going to have interest in trading for him across the league no matter what. But someone like Delvin Cook, he has to fit into a very specific situation. There's only a couple of teams that you could target that actually need a back that might be potentially interested in Delvin Cook. So that

possibility will remain after the draft if they don't trade him on day three. That would also be a surprise if he's traded on day three for some late round draft capital. I don't know the Vikings will do that. So it's always been favorable for the Vikings cap wise to trade him, but they may be backed into a corner and just have to release him at some point. And when we talked to Kweisi Adafil-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell earlier before the draft, there didn't seem to be a whole lot of confident talk that Delvin Cook would be back. I mean, they said, you know, theoretically he, you could see him and Alexander Madison. I think that that would have to come with a restructured contract,

but if Delvin Cook side is not interested in restructuring his contract, then they will have no other choice, but just to release him and move on with Zedarius Smith. I think they want Zedarius Smith to play for this football team and they might just wait and see. Now I'm sure that they're shopping him, but they might just wait and see if they can work something out contract wise with Zedarius Smith that would make him happy that maybe puts a little more cash in his pocket without hurting them cap wise that could be possible to set up his contract that way I suppose and try to keep him I don't think that they ever really wanted him to leave but if a team came in and wanted to trade for him and was willing to rework his contract then okay maybe they were prepared to

do that and I'm sure that they made phone calls to see what the type of interest in Zedarius Smith is but the league knows that they're in a position to trade Zedarius Smith or to move on from him via cutting him so I'm sure that other teams with both of these players are just not backing up the trucks of draft capital plus at the draft is always hard because teams fall in love with the players on their draft board. So you get there and they go, I don't know if we want to trade. We really like this one player who's on the board or our scout loves this player or GM or our owner really loves this potential draft pick more than trading it away for Delvin Cook. So it remains

possible that both players could be moved on day three. The likeliness seems to go down that that's going to happen. But I think at the end of the day, there's a decent chance that maybe Zedaria Smith is here, but probably that both end up just getting cuts. And then we'll see what happens with Daniil Hunter. And I think, I mean, that's just kind of when you have players who are on the older side and the expensive side, and no one wants to give you a hand. No one wants to say, oh yeah, give us your super expensive running back. Here's a fifth round draft pick, but then they have to take on that salary cap hit. And with Zedarius Smith, if his issue is that he's unhappy with

his contract, do you want to be the team that takes him on and then has to redo his contract to put a lot more money in his pocket? I don't know. But I mean, I think both players could certainly help other teams and we shouldn't completely count out the idea of them being traded. But if I had to bet right now, either one of them or both get released and the more likely because of the signing of Alexander Madison I think the more likely is Cook because Zedaria Smith can be on the field at the same time as Marcus Davenport Marcus Davenport does not play full seasons historically you can have rotations you could have pass rush packages with the three players if they're all still on the team but right

now I think and both those situations will remain up in the air, likely until after the draft. But again, if they're traded on day three and they get something for them, then that would be a win for the Vikings to get a little more draft capital, but mostly to create some cap space as there are still some decent free agents on the market that they could bring in at a very good price when you get into the summer. Right now, they can't bring in anybody because they have no draft capital. On to the next question here from D Shepik. Does this fix the defense? No, it does not.

It does not fix the defense that they drafted Makai Blackman. I will say, though, that Makai Blackman has really good numbers. He's got a 91 coverage grade from PFF from last season. His overall grade was over 90. He played well against the run, allowed less than 50% of passes into his coverage, 46 quarterback rating into his coverage, a lot of plays on the ball, 16 forced incompletions, which means he was making plays on the ball, 16 forced incompletions, which means he was making plays on the ball. So we're talking about a guy that I think has potential to play in the NFL. And one thing with it, we discovered

about the PFF grades, just doing some research this off season, leading up to the draft, when it comes to the cornerbacks, having a high grade does not guarantee that you are going to be good. But if you have a terrible grade, it all but guarantees you're going to be bad. I mean, just historically, the players who struggle in college to put up a great PFF grade, which is just tracking each play of what they did, they usually don't have success. So not all 90 graded players out of 100 are going to be great, but at least he meets that threshold. He is quite an experienced player, is on the older side, so he might have a chance to come in right away.

Now, this is unlikely to be a player that has a super high ceiling. His size, his age, these things do not track as somebody who could be the next Darrell Revis. But if you find your next nickel cornerback, your next what Mackenzie Alexander was in the first run for them, somebody who can play that role in a strong and solid way, then there's a lot of value there to a third round draft pick. And I think that's what they're looking for with Mackay Blackman. So does it fix it fix it no but it would help because that would allow byron murphy if he could play inside could allow byron murphy to play

on the outside so now you got two corners there where you feel pretty confident if if he works out and can play and then they need somebody else to step up to the plate the cornerback group though still remains a massive, massive question. There was nothing they could do past the first round that was going to change that. And even if they took one in the first round, it wasn't going to change that. Nothing that they do will make it so you go into training camp feeling good. But the best thing they could do here was throw numbers at it. Just have a lot of people competing for spots, see who rises to the challenge. Maybe that will be Makai Blackman. Maybe that will help them put together a better secondary group than

they did last year. And maybe it won't, I don't know, but of course, no, it does not single handedly fix the defense, but I do think that it is helpful for them to have another person competing for that job. From Big Dan, with the fact like Blackman had a 85 plus grade in both man and zone coverage with Brian Flores, they are very serious about versatile players. Should we expect hybrid players from here on out? I think that you mostly need hybrid players in the NFL today. And I mean that corners who can either travel or stay home, corners who are capable of taking on different types of splits,

different types of motions, playing inside if they're asked to do it. There's just so much movement on offenses now these days where you have teams that are running condensed sets where all the receivers are inside the numbers that just Kwesi Adafo-Mensah was talking about that's kind of a way to simulate what a corner would be like if he was playing in the nickel so there are a lot of nickel type situations with almost all corners so the even the Darrell Revis go out on that Island and stand way out there with the team's number one wide receiver. I think what we see today is most wide receivers

are playing some outside, some inside. There aren't that many that just go stand outside and run outside the numbers like Michael Irvin or something from back in the day. There's just a lot of in breaking routes, a lot of yard after catch. So you need good tacklers. You need guys who can, what they call, stay in phase, which means stay tight to the wide receiver, which Kweisi talked about being one of the things that they liked about McCockman is that he just has a really instinctual sense for staying with wide receivers. So yeah, I mean, I think that this is something that they're looking for to play multiple coverages because well, you know, Brian Flores does play more man coverage, more man coverage means like 60, 40. And that means it will be asking players to play zone

coverage as well. And that may have been something that they liked about Makai Blackman, but I think that it just applies more and more as we go forward. And this could be due, you know, or could be a cause of some of the inconsistency of corners in the NFL and some of the fit problems with corners in the NFL is how versatile you have to be. So maybe that's why we see corners come out of college with high pedigree, but they don't exactly fit in a certain defense where they can't handle the NFL because you're asked to do a lot.

So they will ask a lot probably of Makai Blackman and almost everybody else that they're going to have that at some points you are going to have to do that sort of thing. But I also think yes, that Brian Flores is going to ask guys to play a lot of man coverage, which means move all over the place and be comfortable with that. So, yeah, I do think that. I don't think this is a traditional defense where you just kind of line up

wherever you line up and then go from there. There's always a lot of movement. From, let's see, Alone on the Moon on Twitter, what do you think about the slot CB Antonio Johnson or the defensive lineman? Let's see. Abduware. OK, yeah. The guy from Northwestern. Right. Instead of Blackman. Here's what I think that what I would have picked for them in the third round was a corner. And there are multiple corners that are still on the board that have some name recognition uh keely ringo we're going to get to in a little bit antonio johnson you mentioned

darius rush out of south carolina was another one that was hyped up pretty well and a few other ones um i think gosh uh cory cory trice yeah the guy from purdue i saw quite a few people who liked him there were some pass rushers here that were talked about. Abduware is one of them out of Northwestern, that he was kind of a defensive end, but like five technique, which might have worked for the Vikings. Andre Carter was another one out of Army. Travis Hodges-Tomlinson, another undersized nickel corner

that they could have gone with out of TCU. So I did not identify lead up. Makai Blackman is being a player that the Vikings could potentially go after. And edge rusher is certainly a choice that they could have made here or five technique where they could play inside or kind of outside more of a three, four defensive end type. Abduware not going is pretty surprising to tell you the truth. I mean, the NFL just not as high on him and his combine scores as a lot of the mock drafters out there. It's just hard for me to say, no guys, you got it wrong.

You picked the wrong corner because my goal would have been make sure you get a corner out of today. And if they had picked a pass rusher, I would not have criticized it because, again, that's a very high premium position. But, you know, I think that the only positions we would have criticized out of today would have been what maybe guard, even if they went a running back. Would that have been insane? No.

Considering the situation for Delvin Cook, I would have said, don't pick a guard, although you're always trying to develop those guys, I guess. Don't pick a safety because you have lots of safeties at the moment and all of them can play. You have four safeties that are all pretty good, so don't do that. Linebacker would have been in play today. had a pet prospect that you liked from you watching Abduware or you watching Johnson or reading up on them and saying, well, I think this guy's going to be good. Or I believe this particular draft analyst, like, I don't blame you for that, but I just think they should go with the guy that they wanted at this very much key position. So we can look at the differences between those guys. And I very much believe in interior pressure, which I think Abduwari was a bit of a tweener, but if he was more of an interior pressure guy, that's something that they just couldn't fill. But when you only have one pick to use,

you can only take one guy. And if they were taking one, then I say, go for the cornerback that you like, as opposed to the cornerback that mock drafters like and you know again like do I think that they may be stretched on here based on the consensus draft board yeah it looks like it did they do something insane or pick a guy out of complete nowhere that no one's ever heard of I mean he went to USC played on a great defense and he played great well doing it so I don't have a criticism for the player that they took I think, that when you wait and wait and wait and see so many players go off the board and then see guys that you have heard have been hyped up over the offseason and over this long lead up to the draft in the third and fourth rounds,

or you see on a consensus board, you're going to say, well, why didn't they take this guy or that guy? But I think if we look historically in these third, fourth rounds, you're just taking swings. You're taking swings at somebody that you hope can be a contributor, or maybe you're taking a swing at somebody that you hope is a project player. But as far as Abduware goes, I mean, with that type of athletic profile, the guy gets to here. Do we believe that he's going to turn that into being a quality NFL

player if he has all of those signs of athleticism but no one thinks he can actually play to be at this point I think the Vikings have taken that risk many times before and I don't know how well it has worked out from JTMN Skoll PFF really high on Blackman with a 90.6 grade. Can we assume that Flores opinion and the opinion of PFF that this could be a steal? Well, it depends on what you mean by steal. I mean, I think when, when we're talking about steals, I think usually it's when a player kind of slips through the cracks and there's no really great reason that he dropped. It's just that the teams in front of you didn't need it and say like Joey Porter Jr. Now, I don't know what was said today about Joey Porter Jr. and why he dropped and ended up at the very top of the second round, but he was a guy

that I think had a really good case for being a top 15 prospect based on his athleticism, his length, his performance in college, all of those things, and was projected to be very high on draft boards. Not just, hey, this guy is number 74, but you took him at number 102. I mean, we're talking about fringe top 10 versus taking him early in the second round. I think that that could be a steal because they lucked into him based on what was needed ahead of that draft pick. I mean, heck, Will Levis could be a steal because the teams from the Vikings to the Titans did not need a quarterback and they lucked into him as opposed to taking him in 11 if they really wanted him. And so it might not be that much different. Might not be. I'm not saying that it will. And so it might not be that much different. Might not

be. I'm not saying that it will be, but it might not be that different from the Vikings getting Teddy or Baltimore getting, I mean, Baltimore getting Lamar Jackson once upon a time. Like those very early second rounders, they're very close. And you could say, look, I mean, if he wasn't good enough for 23, he wasn't going to go until the second round because of all those teams. So there are steel potentials in there. I don't look at Blackman as the type of guy we would quantify as a steel. Now, if he was projected and steels aren't always good. I mean, we thought Wyatt Davis was a third round steel.

He was projected late first round, early second. He ends up in the third. The Vikings take him there and it was over before it started with him. I look at Blackman as more of a guy that can potentially turn into a player for the Vikings. And he does not have any sort of profile that screams superstar for the Vikings, which I would say, hey, if you get a guy in the third with star potential, then we could talk about a steal. I would not qualify this as a steal. I would qualify this as a player with potential to play a role on this defense very soon, which is good. And if you get that out of the third round, that's good. It could have been another philosophy to take a big swing uh but they decided not to do

it that way and instead to kind of take i want to say a higher floor player uh maybe more of a safer pick because he is older they have a bigger sample size on him i guess you could say drafting an older player is a little more risky but they did not go for hey let's take the abduware the athletic freak who could have a high ceiling, but probably doesn't because if he really did, he would have been taken higher. It's tricky business. I mean, I think that the PFF grade that you guys are asking about, it's good. It's more good than it's bad, but it's not really predictive of what someone's going to be in the NFL necessarily.

It more just tells us that he played really, really well in college last year, made a ton of plays on the football, and tracks receivers very well, and has a little bit of edge to him because he was a good run defender. And that's a good bet. I think that's the best you can really do in the third round, especially at a premium position. All right, from at Burn Retina, did they just not see Ringo play? Yeah. Okay. So the thing about Ringo, and I don't know why the entire NFL has decided that Ringo was not

a good prospect because most of the draft analysts believed that he was, I know that PFF was much lower on him than some of the other draft analysts who really liked his size, six foot two, 207 pounds. But, you know, I think that one of the concerns here was that he was so raw. And for a player that does have, you know, like some experience playing and he played 30 games over the last two years that there must be some belief that he is just not going to be able to fix the issues that he has. I mean, when I'm reading some of the draft analysis, lacking anticipation, not being able to make plays on the football. And so he may be just an athletic freak, but not somebody that they believe is going to fix

these fundamental issues. I don't know if there's injury issues. This is always something to talk about or if there was anything else off the field. But I don't think it was the idea that they did not see Ringo or know that he is incredibly fast or tall or has these ridiculous tools, as it's called in his pff draft write-up i think they just may not have believed that he could fix those issues or was too raw and they wanted to make a little bit of a safer bet but when the entire league says they don't want him anywhere near where the draft analysts did want him then I am okay with them passing on him.

I mean, I don't know any better than anybody else, whether Ringo or Blackman becomes a better player, right? I mean, if everyone is evaluating him and saying that the issues that he has are so serious that he can't even be taken in the first three rounds. And he's considered somebody with all these great physical tools.

That must mean the technique is just very poor and that they don't think first three rounds and he's considered somebody with all these great physical tools that must mean the technique is just very poor and that they don't think he'll be able to recover or that there's another issue that it's off field that it's injuries whatever that's holding everybody back so i i don't know i mean i think this is one of those things where if you saw analysts say this player was supposed to go higher, there's a natural inclination to say, what were they doing? Why didn't they take this guy that analysts like? But a lot of times, you know, the NFL has more intel and more knowledge.

That's not that steals never happen. Steals do happen all the time. But is one bet better than the other? I have a tough time saying that it is. So I saw a lot of criticism for the Vikings, not taking Ringo. I am not going to jump on that bandwagon. I'm not because everybody else seems to think it's the same problems with him. Okay. From at Kai Baxter is Blackman a day one starter kind of seems like he would be simply due to the numbers. Wondering if that's a good thing though.

Yeah. Well, you make a point that if he has to be a day one starter, then that does maybe tell you something about your cornerback room. It is a very, I guess right now, it seems like a very unproven room would be the Minnesota nice way to put it. I remember maybe a couple of years ago, we did like say something Minnesota nice about the different players on the team or whatever, say something Minnesota nice about the cornerback group.

Well, it certainly has a lot of people and a lot of potential for doing better than anybody has done in the past. What you have though is you have one guy that you really can count on, and that's Byron Murphy. And the rest is all up in the air, even with, you know, Jawan Williams has played in the league before but does not have a great background, so it's not clear that he'll be able to play.

Brian Flores, guy that he must have liked, obviously, but no clear-cut thing on him. And then you have three players who are just completely unproven in a Caleb Evans Andrew Booth Jr. and now Makai Blackman and you need two out of the three more likely than not if Jawan Williams doesn't become a starter you need two out of the three to be ready to play and so they're making that bet that Andrew Booth Jr. or Caleb Evans or Makai Blackman will be able to step up to that challenge. If he has to be a day one starter, there is a big learning curve to your question when

it comes to corners. And this was looked at a few years ago by Timo Riske of PFF, where he discovered he looked at the learning curves, like guards take sometimes three, maybe even four years to maximize their potential to reach their peak performance and cornerbacks. They did it quicker, but it usually took till year two. So you don't necessarily want your first year corner to take on a huge load, especially if he is switching positions and has to play in the nickel and Byron Murphy moves to the outside. But they're basically going to

throw a bunch of numbers at this thing and see what comes out. And at this point, without a lot of cap space to spend, that is about as good as you can do. So if he wins a job and turns out to be a day one starter, like that is a good thing. I mean, that says that he went through training camp, battled with other NFL potential players and ended up winning the job. But the bar isn't that high as if he was beating out a bunch of other veterans. And I do wonder if when, if, and when they create some more cap space that they do sign another veteran corner, like a late type of June 1st cut or something like that. And I don't want to say Bashad Breeland is like some sort of model of what to do, but a Bashad Breeland type, some veteran who's been proven in another place.

I could see that as well. But yeah, I think there's a decent chance that Makai Blackman does end up starting for the Vikings in year one as a third round draft pick. That's risky. That probably comes along with a big learning curve, but are you okay with that for this year? I mean, because there isn't a whole lot else you could do. So I think you are okay with finding out what they have in the secondary and then getting to next year and saying, you know what, we know we've got a player there or we know we've got to replace that position with Makai Blackman. Because usually what you'll see from a rookie is even though there's lots of ups and downs, at least the potential will be there for that player going forward. So they're

looking for a couple of those guys that they've drafted. And look, this is not an approach we can really criticize too much. Taking three corners in either the second, third, fourth round over the last two years, throwing numbers at this position, I think is a good idea. So if he has to start, it might be a little bit of a rough ride, but also that means that he won the starting job out of training camp,

which could be a good thing down the road. Let's see, from Marco Brespa on Twitter is Makai Blackman, our Chris Boyd replacement. I guess so. I mean, he's probably going to have to play special teams if he ends up being deaf and it's Evans and Booth and Murphy are your quarter cornerbacks. Then I guess, yeah, he'll become a special teamer. I think that what you expect though, is for Blackman to be a better cover corner than what Chris Boyd was. I mean, Chris Boyd was a seventh round draft pick. The fact that the guy even made an NFL career was pretty impressive and he became a really good special teamer. Like that's about all you can hope for

out of a seventh round pick. Your hopes are higher for Makai Blackman, even though he was the back end of the third round, but you are hoping that he can fill a role and become a starter. You don't put the expectation on him much higher than that, but if he can be a solid starter, then that's a winning draft pick. And I think his ability to cover man to man based on those numbers, based on what Kweisi Adafo-Mentz has said, would set him apart from someone like Chris Boyd. But I guess technically what you're saying by the numbers, yeah, I mean, I guess he's

your Chris Boyd replacement in a way. This one comes from at MrStamps on Twitter. How would you compare Blackman to the other cornerbacks available, aka Ringo? Yeah, I mean, that's I think with Ringo, it really comes down to a guy who's 24 and has played a ton of football in Blackman who they really believe in his coverage ability and his ability to make plays on the ball versus Ringo, a track athlete, and is very impressive in terms of his size, but not that impressive in terms of his technique. And that would be the only reason that they would draft Blackman over Ringo,

unless it's something else to do with his health or to do with off the field. And there were a few other guys. I mean, Antonio Johnson got brought up. I thought Clark Phillips was kind of an interesting player. The consensus draft board, according to our friend Arif Hassan, was pretty high on him. I think he was 65th on that. And so that was a guy that I had identified as someone they might look at. I liked Travis Hodges Tomlinson. He's very

small, but being very small did not seem to terrify this team in this draft because the guy they picked was also very small. So there were, there were others. I mean, Travis Hodges Tomlinson looked more on paper paper like a pure zone corner and I think maybe they liked Blackman's ability to play man-to-man better than him I can't say exactly for sure on Clark Phillips I could take a look here at some of his numbers for why they would have maybe preferred Blackman over Phillips who you know the consensus and PFF had a little bit higher than where Blackman was, but also Phillips only five foot nine. And he was a playmaker. I mean, he made some plays on the ball, got six interceptions. So, you know, he was definitely a playmaker eight in the last two years

had a great coverage grade, but there's a lot of similarities there, like not the perfect size, maybe a good playmaker on the ball in the pack 12, but maybe not somebody who fit exactly what they wanted to do from a man coverage perspective. So that's the best guess that I have, but we weren't going to hear Kweisi Adafomensa come out and say, here's why I didn't like all the other corners. Here's why I liked this one. The best we can do is that Brian Flores liked this one. and that's the one that they decided to go for. And look, I mean, it's just coin flips at this point. If Clark Phillips and Keely Ringo, if these guys go early in the fourth, the odds are all about the same because they've all been evaluated in this same ballpark of late day two kind of caliber picks. Somebody's going to get it right. Somebody's going to get it wrong. We don't know which one, but I think they picked the guy who fit kind of where they are, what they need. And it seemed like the versatility and his ability to play nickel was

a big part of this conversation. And that's the best you can really do. But we know that it was a player that they had evaluated thinking about him at 87. And it's a position that they really, really need. And again, like that's, that's really the best you could do when you only have this many picks. If they had many more picks, we would have a lot more to talk about here than just one guy versus Clark Phillips or Ringo or Johnson or whatever. So I have a real tough time getting to a place where I can say, how dare you pick this player that you guys liked and thought would fit your defense and evaluate it as this level of a prospect. I just have a tough time scrutinizing that too much. But this pick was criticized a bit

among the fans who I think were just bored and I think wanted more picks or fell in love with the idea of other guys heading into this round. And then we're surprised by somebody. And there were times where under Rick Spielman that Vikings fans were surprised by the outcome. And it didn't always turn out if it was somebody that they had not seen mocked as high. So I understand where it's coming from, but I don't think it's completely fair to say, well, why didn't they take this guy instead? Because I've heard of that guy and I haven't heard of this guy, even though Blackman played on a huge stage at USC on a super successful team and he was a major part of their defense. So maybe this was just someone that the outside world didn't evaluate as high as maybe they should have. I don't know. I guess we're going to find out. This from at Brad Trams on Twitter. If the Vikings don't make the playoffs and the draft

picks are duds, does Kweisi get fired? No. And on to the next question from Big Dan with DeAndre Swift now on the trading block. Miami picking up a running back does feel like a foregone conclusion that Delvin Cook will be released and not traded this weekend. Does feel that way. Yes, it's kind of always felt that way. My thing was, why would anyone trade for Delvin Cook when you could get him when he's released? And I think every team feels that way.

Go through the salary cap space. How many teams can even afford Delvin Cook's salary? Not that many, not that many. And Miami was targeted as one potential team, but they just don't seem all that interested. Maybe they would pick him up if he's dropped, but it doesn't seem like they even think that that is a possibility.

So we are approaching that. The only last minute thing that could happen is if Delvin Cook reworks his contract to stay with the Vikings. I think that that is an okay outcome, but not a great one. I think you'd much rather see what Ty Chandler has. Maybe Kenny Wong will find his way into the offense. Maybe they draft someone on day three. I think you're much better off looking for that than you are if it came to running back Delvin Cook at his age after his

performance last year. It may not have been a good fit in the scheme that Kevin O'Connell wants to run. It's much better to just cut him, take what draft capital you can get, move on, create your running back backfield that could be there for a couple of years with Madison leading the way, and move on with your life. Then holding on to what's left of an older running back. It's a harsh world. He's been a great player.

It's just the reality of how running backs have worked out over the last, I don't know, 15 years or so. On to, let's see, MarDelicious2. When will people admit that Kwesi, with his zero years of talent evaluation, is in over his head after getting fleeced by Detroit last year and now by San Francisco as well? Well, you could certainly make a case that last year that trade was not a great one. Now, Jamison Williams hasn't looked good so far

with the ACL issue that kept him out all last year. And now the gambling issue that he's may very well turn into a great wide receiver. They end up with Jordan Addison a year later. I think I would take that outcome for them to end up with Jordan Addison. And we'll see how that plays out between him and Jamison Williams. Jamison Williams was a little undersized, just like Jordan Addison. Williams may be a better deep threat. Addison more of an underneath route runner. So you kind of have to compare those two a little bit in that trade.

Moving down as far as they did, not picking up a first, getting a safety. We've kind of gone over it. Didn't love it. Didn't love the process there. It still could work out in the Vikings' favor. Did not love that. This, this is hard to criticize. I don't know how these two things are being conflated. I mean, last year you're moving down 20 spots. You are moving out of an area where Kyle Hamilton is picked. Jordan Davis is picked. Like these are some premier prospects to a space where there's been very little success in

the back of the first round. Historically, it's a tough pick at number 32 to go through and find many great players. So you really sacrificed a lot to move back. And usually you get a first round pick. If you do so, they didn't. That's the criticism of last year. But when we're talking about moving back a couple of spots in the third round let's all go back do this on your own i'm not going to

do this for you go back go to drafthistory.com look up every third round and compare the late middle to the late end and you're just going to find pure randomness that that's what you're going to find. You're going to find a handful of guys who were in the late eighties, early nineties types of picks. You're going to find a handful of guys that are in that early fourth round. I think what Amon Ross St. Brown was an early fourth rounder. You know, you're going to find, it's just going to be completely random. I don't think that there's a whole lot of difference between someone who's taken 87th and 102. I just, I just don't. And to pick up some extra draft capital to take some extra throws at the dartboard is completely fine. I don't see how those two things could be conflated.

And I think this draft overall, considering how little they have had to work with, they pick someone who could have a huge impact as wide receiver too. They pick someone who could potentially be a nickel starter for them. How much better were they going to do without draft capital? If you want to make the draft capital criticism, yeah, well, you certainly can. They spent some of it on a star tight end in an all-in type of move last year when they had a chance as a 13-win team. And he's still on the team now,

TJ Hawkinson. He was at the wild game. So, and he got his first taste of Minnesota sports disappointment. So, you know, there you go. TJ Hawkinson, a Vikings and wild first round playoff loss since TJ Hawkinson has been here. Welcome to Minnesota, my friend. But if, if this is what they've made out of their first, second, and third picks is a wide receiver to a star tight end, who's one of the top, probably five to seven in his position. And then a corner with some potential to start. How are we saying that this is like some sort of complete failure? I don't understand unless you were a huge will Levis fan and thought that they should have taken him at 23. I just have a tough time looking at this saying oh wow can't believe you says i don't look at that way really at all for what they've done so far in this draft and as far as

his years of talent evaluation i i just want you to look around look around pro sports. Is every GM an old scout or old player? No, that's not how pro sports works. There's a lot of people like Kweisi Adafo-Mensah in pro sports that are general managing. Do you know how many people they have who talent evaluate in the building? The answer is a lot. You have Kweisi Adafo-Mensah here to make decisions like taking a number two wide receiver, because that's the most valuable thing that they could take, not so he can scout the players. Although I think he does do some scouting as well and has learned that from being in front offices for many years now in the NFL. So I think that's, it's unfair on a lot of levels, that comment. Let's see, from at IBeLearning79,

why wouldn't they go best player available, especially at a position that we need the best player available? I assume that this was their best player available. This was not the consensus mock draft board's best player available. And I have respect for the consensus mock draft board and for what it tells us. But I would prefer they take their player unless it's a preposterous reach.

Okay. So again, with the, like, let's not conflate things last year, reaching from a guy who is expected to be in the fourth, to take him high in the second and start him as a guard. So it's a non-premium position and it's a major reach by the consensus board.

That's way different than taking a premium position in a muddy area of the third, fourth round. I mean, this is very different. And I've talked myself on this show to Arif Hassan, the inventor of the consensus board about this very thing, where it's totally different of taking somebody who appears to be a reach by that one way of looking at it. But again, I would much prefer they just take someone that they want, that they think is a fit than someone that the outside community who speaks for all prospects in a very general way with all teams. That's not how a draft works. The draft does not work in a very general way where you take the player that might fit one team, but not another.

And they always talk about fit being very important. I mean, this is, this is a late third round cornerback that I feel like I'm having to be very defensive about. And I, I don't even know if I want to be like, I get your guy's point where you are told by like some outside draft people that that one prospect is better than this prospect but I don't know that to be true and I certainly don't know that one player is better than the other as a fit this isn't like it's a player who was horrible in college it's not like it's a bad run stuffing inside linebacker I mean this is a corner who

picked off a bunch of passes and played great on a really good defense. Like, I don't know. I just have a tough time getting around to how dare you, uh, from Vikings fan 1964, does Casey know what he's doing? That's a good question. Um, you know, I think the jury's still out on that. I mean, I think this has been a fine draft for what they had. I think the TJ Hawkinson decision that. I mean, I think this has been a fine draft for what they had. I think the TJ Hawkinson decision last year was the right one. Would I have rather had Hawkinson? And I know you got to pay him.

So it's a little different or just a second round pick someone. Probably Hawkinson, since I know he's going to be a good player for a long time. I think Jordan Addison was an A. It's a great pick. And I think this is fine. I just can't get too worked up about a late third round cornerback if you wanted a better player they needed to draft like way higher and you move back from 87 to 102 it's not going back that far it's not and i looked at who got drafted in between i mean who else who did you want there was there somebody that was

like the apple of your eye but does he know what he's doing that? I don't know. Uh, because the entire off season is not over the sample size over multiple years of him as the general manager is not up. I think we need much more than one draft last year, one draft this year, a handful of free agent signings, two years. I mean, look, what determines how we feel about Kweisi Adafomans at the end of the day is going to be what they eventually do at quarterback down the road.

And what we learned this weekend is that's not happening today. So that's going to be a 2024 decision or, you know, Trey Lance or something, a total shocker, but unlikely that that's going to happen since it didn't happen yesterday and didn't happen today. But where they go from here, we can look at next year's team.

I think it will be good. It will be competitive. They will stand by their competitive rebuild. And they have, here's why I think that you could make an argument that Kweisi Adafo-Mensa knows what he's doing. They have set up about the best situation you could for their future quarterback to drop into by picking Jordan Addison, by having KJ Osborne. We'll see if he stays long-term or not as he becomes a free agent. We'll see on

Justin Jefferson's extension. Let's assume he's here. Let's assume TJ Hawkinson's here. Let's assume Christian Derrissaw and Brian O'Neill remain. I mean, that is an amazing group of weapons. What's going to win for you? Is it defense? Maybe you need one. You need one that's better than last year. That's for sure. But what is winning in the NFL year in and year out and receiving duos are about as consistent as you get from year in and year out. And they've tried to forge one, having a great receiving duo. So I think that plan is pretty good. Overall, though, do we know for sure? And look, maybe the Levis thing will come back to hurt them.

I don't know. He was picked so high in the second round that we at least have to bring up the fact that he was picked really high in the second round and that the Vikings had their chance. They had a chance for Kenny Pickett last year. Now, if Kenny Pickett and Will Levis both turn out to be great quarterbacks, we're going to look back and go, guys, there was a couple of quarterbacks that you passed on that were picked kind of right after you and you didn't think they were good enough. So we're going to keep an eye on that as well. But I think passing on Levis was a fine idea

considering what the rest of the league thought about him. And now the quarterback situation is still up in the air. How they resolve that will determine how we end up feeling at the end of the day about Kweisi Adafo-Mensah as the GM, Kevin O'Connell as the coach, and the overall direction of the organization. That's not solved today, So I can't really say for sure. I think the answer is probably much closer to yes than it is no. And the way that they have

handled this has been, I think, very solid. The way that they've handled the overall off season, we're not done yet. We've still got an incomplete grade, but this, this is how it probably should have gone. And now we'll see on those other decisions and where they set themselves up for. But here's what I would say as far as know what he's doing. Not extending Kirk Cousins was a little bold compared to his predecessor and a good choice. And so I lean toward the biggest decision you made this off season was a good one. And the biggest decision in the draft in the first round was a good one. And the biggest decision in the draft in the first round was a good one. The process is good there. And so that's leaning me much more

toward know what you're doing than not. Let's get a few more in here. I've just realized how long I've been taking these questions, but I really enjoy them. And I appreciate everyone sending them. Even if I don't agree with you that you wanted Keely Ringo and so forth, I really appreciate the participation and I hope it doesn't come across as, you know, kind of smacking down your opinions on what they've done here tonight. I just, I feel like there is not a reason to have any anger toward how they handled night two of the NFL draft, considering what they had from a West one first round receiver, trade back defensive back, two guys from the same school. Are we sure Spielman isn't drafting for us still? Well, I don't know how much different we wanted it to be, but I will say that Rick Spielman, one of the things that he did not address

was having three good wide receivers. He always seemed to feel like they were okay with having just Diggs and Adam Thielen and then a couple tight ends. And I disagreed with that for the entire time that Rick Spielman was here. I thought that there were lots of opportunities to take wide receivers, including, you know, AJ Brown in a draft a while back. And that's just one guy. But, you know, there have been lots draft a while back. And that's just one guy, but you know,

there have been lots of wide receivers that were taken high that have succeeded that I felt like was a good choice to not just settle for having two good wide receivers. And they did that here. And I consider KJ Osborne a good wide receiver superstar. I would not say that, but good wide receiver effective. He's put up good numbers two years in a row he's got good chemistry with Kirk Cousins you're trying to form a three deep you're trying to run out as many dangerous weapons as you can and to do that I think was a little different did they take a bunch of defensive backs in the third round or second round in years past I don't remember that I mean they took Cam Dantzler and what Mackenzie Alexander in the second but I don't remember that. I mean, they took Cam Dantzler and what,

Mackenzie Alexander in the second, but I don't think that that was any sort of trend. I also don't think that drafting players from the same school is any sort of trend. I think we're reaching because we're bored. Tonight, there just wasn't a lot of picks. They're kind of reaching to criticize the Vikings for, I'm not sure exactly what on this. And I don't think this was like a Rick Spielman draft.

So far, this has not really been a Rick Spielman off season. They didn't extend Kirk. They moved on from some players that were older and expensive. They brought in guys who were swings for the future, like Davenport and Byron Murphy, kind of a now and later guys who could have upside rather than just plugging holes with some veterans. I don't feel like this has that many similarities to the past. There's also only so many ways you could be vastly different from the guys drafting in the past. Again, we're just really hammering.

So I'll probably just answer one or two more questions. A D or F grade. How am I supposed to grade this? You had one pick. They moved back a little. They took the guy they wanted i don't know b what do you want i mean how hot of a take can we make out of this like there was just not the draft picks there and if you want to criticize that that's fine

but you also have to throw tj hawkinson back into the river which i wouldn't want to do uh cook a post june one cut i so. I think that's probably likely. So yeah, we got a lot of these kind of just reaching for hot takes when it came to tonight. But I just don't think that's really the space I want to be in. I think it's more of a shrugs like, okay, well that, you know, you didn't do anything. You didn't take Jake Hainer, Jaron Hall, Clayton tuneon, Dorian Thompson Robinson. Maybe they'll take one of those on day three. Didn't seem like there was a lot of interest from anybody in the NFL to take those middle

round quarterbacks. There was no run on those guys. What was it that you were looking for? Someone that the consensus mock board decided was better than the player you picked. Well, we don't know if that player was a better fit for what they wanted to do. And if he turns out to be the best cornerback in the whole draft, then you guys all nailed it. But I don't know. I mean, it's when these teams rank their prospects, they're putting them into buckets, what they see from them, what they can do well, how they can fit. And that's a huge consideration. It's much bigger of a consideration than people who are mocking these players to whatever spot or big boarding these players.

It's just, it is, it's like the thing that they're looking for. So do I love that they reached a little bit according to a consensus board? Not really. I don't think that's the best thing you can do. Uh, but I also think that it's a negligible difference for most of the time. And that nobody seems to think that the Ringo guy, everybody loved, just like with Will Levis, how everyone loved him as a top five pick, but he just wasn't like, that's, that's the draft. That's the draft. People on the outside do not have all the answers when it comes to these things.

And neither do the people inside because it's the draft do you want a random shot at a corner who played really good college football and isn't perfect in the third round sure sure i do sure you're making me be more defensive than i thought i would have to be of this pick uh all right can we all agree the vikes should have just traded all of their picks for one player in this draft? Well, all of their picks didn't add up to a whole lot. So I just look, I think that if you're saying, and we've said this, we have said this for a while, that one of the reasons to not competitive rebuild, to not go all in on last year as they did much more than rebuild, was to try to get as much draft capital as they could. And that goes for the last few years that they spent, and this is not quasi-dopplemental, but they spent fourth round picks on Chris Herndon, fifth round picks on Corey Vedvik. And look, was it the best spending of draft picks on Ross Blacklock? Probably not. Jalen Rager? Probably not. These are things that are to be learned in the future,

I think, is that you need those middle round draft picks to shuffle around, to move up, to move down a little bit more, move up more likely than down with extra draft capital. But you need those to even out trades. You need those to help you swap with somebody more than you need Jalen Rager, more than you need Ross Blacklock. Problem. Don't get fooled too much into that late training camp move where somebody else is willing to get rid of a player. So there are things we can look back and say, you know, you probably should have had more draft capital. Maybe you could have moved on from a certain player here or there to trade them for more draft capital, but you can't make it out of thin air.

And some teams had more compensatory picks. You can't create it out of thin air. So working with what they have now, there was only so much they'd be able to do. And who did you want them to move up for to take one player in the draft? If you could add it all up and only move up a couple spots, did you want a receiver? I mean, because they got a good one. They got a receiver who has every bit the odds of Quinton Johnston or Zay Flowers of working out.

So to me, this was if we were laying out scenarios, the best case scenario was that they traded up and grabbed Anthony Richardson. OK, well, that was not possible. What was the second best scenario? That they got a weapon for the future to pair with Jefferson to set up for the next quarterback? Okay, well, that box is checked. What would you do with the rest of the draft capital? Try to get more by moving down a bit.

Draft a premium position secondary. That's what they did. So the setup, the lead up to this draft has some questions about just how much draft capital that they ended up with and why. And, you know, Kweisi Adafomense is saying earlier that they had a lot of picks last year and it's like, well, okay, but you know, you could have used some more this year as well. And when you're rebuilding spots of your roster, you need more draft picks, but they didn't have them. So how they've used them so far, uh, really good in the first round, in my opinion, and fine for the second round. Fine is where I would go with it. It doesn't blow my socks off. It clearly, uh, does not make some

of you happy, but I have no problem with it. And I think that Blackman has just as much of a chance as anybody else who's drafted in this range to become a good player for the Vikings. So they're making their bet on him based on what Brian Flores wants. That's fine with me. I'm just not going to reach too far to try to criticize them because we had a long night waiting for them to draft someone. I think that's kind of what happened here. So I think also too, that there were more expectations about fireworks of Trey Lance or more expectations of fireworks with Delvin Cook. And when we talk about these possibilities over and over, and then they don't happen, it is a disappointment, but I think these things are coming to a resolution at some point.

And then we'll decide what we think of the entire off season as a whole. So I, if we're ranking like what we can really scrutinize and whatnot, if you were a Will Levis fan, and I talked to somebody today who evaluates a lot of players and said, you know, maybe they should have just taken Will Levis, but I just can't tell Kweisi Adaflomenta and Kevin O'Connell to take a quarterback. They don't believe it. Even if he turns out to be good, I think that's okay. I think I want them to go all in. Were they supposed to trade up to take Hendon Hooker? Third rounders are backups. So no. Were they supposed to take an edge rusher? How have the third round edge rushers and fourth round edge

rushers worked out for the Vikings in recent years. Were they supposed to take a running back? It's really just, it seems to be the biggest criticism is they should have taken a different corner. And I don't know about that. I think they're in a better position to decide what fits Brian Flores is defense than we are. And that's not to say that they always know what they're talking about and

they could not do any wrong because we've criticized them plenty about last year's approach, but this one, I'm not there with you for some of you who wanted Ringo or who wanted Hodges Tomlinson or somebody else. And we'll see how it all plays out when we get to training camp and see how the fit is and where Blackman ends up playing for the Vikings. And maybe it won't work out. That's kind of the draft, but the position is right for what they did. And I had no issue with where they traded. So there you go from a night to where we spent a lot of time. We watched the NBA. We watched the NHL. We watched the twins in the Vikings media room, all waiting for the Vikings to get to a pick. It was a long night. We got there. People

aren't thrilled, but I think the Vikings have come away from the first two days. Just fine for what they had. So thanks everybody for listening and continue to send your questions and your comments. We're back to fans only on the show here, taking your questions. Purple insider.com is a good place to send those as well as my Twitter at Matthew collar.

That's where all of these came in and appreciate all of your time. And we will talk to you all again after,